About Us

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Giving What We Can is a community of effective givers. We inspire people to donate significantly and as effectively aspossible.

Forming a community allows us to share information on how and where to give, helps us stick to our commitment and lets us stand together to create a culture of giving more, and moreeffectively.

Our Vision

A world in which giving 10% of our income to the most effective organisations is thenorm

Our Mission

Inspire donations to the world’s most effectiveorganisations

We believe that charitable donations can do an incredible amount of good. However, a donation to a more effective charity can make a much bigger difference than a donation to a less effective charity. It turns out that the difference between charities is astounding. It is therefore critical that we give our money to the most effective charities, so that it will have the greatest impactpossible.

If you're not sure where to start in your own charity research, we recommend a few avenues here.

Our Values

We are a welcoming community, sharing our passion and energy to improve the lives ofothers.

We care

We have a deep commitment to helpingothers.

We are dedicated to helping other members of our community give more andbetter.

We take action based onevidence

We are open-minded towards new approaches to altruism that may show greatereffectiveness.

We are honest when it comes to what we don't know or mistakes we havemade.

We are optimistic

We are ambitious in terms of the change we believe we cancreate.

We apply energy and enthusiasm to support and build ourcommunity.

Our History

Giving What We Can is the brainchild of Toby Ord, a philosopher at Balliol College, Oxford. Inspired by the ideas of ethicists such as Peter Singer, Toby decided in 2009 to commit a large proportion of his income to effectivecharities.

Discovering that many of his friends and colleagues were interested in making a similar pledge, Toby worked with fellow Oxford philosopher Will MacAskill to create an international organisation of people who would donate a significant proportion of their incomes to cost-effectivecharities.

Giving What We Can launched in November 2009, attracting significant media attention. Within a year, 64 people had joined the society, their pledged donations amounting to $21 million. Initially run on a volunteer basis, Giving What We Can took on full-time staff in the summer of2012.

A Growing Movement

We now have 4,255 members, who have pledged to donate 10% of their income over the course of their careers. So far, our members have donated more than $126,751,939 tocharity.

Current Structure

In July 2016, Giving What We Can was incorporated more fully into its parent organisation, the Centre for Effective Altruism. It is now run by the Centre for Effective Altruism's staff.

Our Network

Giving What We Can was one of the first in a growing network of like-minded organisations focused on effective altruism, the art of thinking critically about how to do the most good. You can learn more about the ideas behind effective altruism here.